A Sobering Look
At a Divided Emerald Isle

By

Tunku Varadarajan

Updated July 5, 2002 5:32 p.m. ET

The stereotype of Northern Ireland tells us that the province is inhabited by dull-brained, vicious bigots who are locked in interminable hostility -- majority Protestants who wish to remain British vs. minority Roman Catholics who long for unification with the Republic of Ireland -- and are driven by a tribal loathing that seems no less benighted than the Hutu-Tutsi parallel, or anything out of the former Yugoslavia.